Living under a rock won’t bring customers to your doorstep. The only way to attract the business you need is to get online, harness the digital age and make it work for you. Stop working against technology – it isn’t going anywhere. In fact, the digital revolution is rapidly evolving and growing, and you can quite easily be left behind if you don’t jump on-board.

Gone are the days of advertising in a magazine, newspaper or cold-calling. Digital marketing and customer retention are now online. The best part is if you use a Customer Relationship Manager, all your work processes will be automated and online! CRMs are designed to work for you and not against you, so what are you waiting for? Jump on the CRM bandwagon now!

Why Use a CRM?

CRMs are designed to find, retain and market to your customers. A CRM is a solution which takes all your customer service and marketing efforts, places them in one place and offers work-flow solutions to not only contact them but to market to them effectively.

A well-designed CRM software program can include:

  • Contact Management and Retention
  • Email Tracking and Integration
  • Email Marketing and Integration
  • Phone Dialing and Call Logging
  • Social Media Integration
  • Lead and Lead Opportunity Management
  • Web to Lead Capture
  • Case or Lead Assignment Routing
  • Follow Up Actions
  • Comprehensive Dashboard and Reporting

A CRM that includes a platform for easy integration can grow with the business needs, and creates an easy marketing and sales process that is worth its weight in gold. Add mobile access to this recipe and your business is good to go! Managing your contacts, leads and the associated data that goes with these resources in one platform increases productivity, and saves on costs and time. The business advantages to using a CRM are endless. Employing and utilizing a CRM just makes good business sense.

Automation and Integration

Automation and integration go together with CRMs like peanut butter and jelly. There are many plugins and applications that can work seamlessly together to provide a proper holistic marketing approach. Zoho CRM and Mailchimp are best suited for small businesses that want to stay ahead of the lead generation curve. Getting these two popular platforms to speak to each other is easy – PieSync offers Zoho Mailchimp integration which can send out updated email campaigns to your lists.

There are various other automated and integration solutions which can help you achieve stellar success, all you need to do is speak to your marketing department to get the ball rolling.

The Bottom Line

If you are in a sales-centered environment, you need a sales tracking and management CRM in order to compete with the rest. By reaching out to your clients, retaining them, and creating new lead opportunities, your marketing strategy is bound to deliver positive results. A CRM should be part of any management or marketing strategy, and it should be used to its full potential as this can only add to the bottom line of any business. A win-win for everyone!

 This paid content article was written by Rosana Beechum, Digital Marketing Consultant. Email: rosanabeechum@gmail.com